Early response to call for food tent volunteers amazing

Wednesday

Aug 6, 2014 at 7:00 AM

Dave Clarke

When I "volunteered" to line up people for the help-strapped Hog Days sandwich tent, I feared I might be creating a monster — a GOOD monster, mind you.Saturday I explained the problem of not enough volunteers to keep the lines moving and issued a challenge to folks to step up, give back, and help us all have a happier Hog Days.I thought that might be the end of it. People want to help, but it's a busy weekend, there's a lot going on, blah, blah, blah. I would not have been surprised if only one or two people stepped forward. As the celebration drew near I might have to get on the phone and twist a few arms to fill the sign-up sheet to back up Niles Reamer and his faithful band of baggers.Boy, was I wrong!By noon Saturday, Kathy Werderman had signed up members of the Friends of the Animal Shelter for a couple of hours on Monday of the weekend and I heard the Kewanee Woman's Club is trying to put a crew together.But would that be all? Nowhere close. Monday and Tuesday the phone rang and e-mails flew. Ron and Dawn Cervantez asked for hours on Sunday, then Ronelle Spiegel, Steve Franklin and Vanessa Hulslander, along with a few teens, signed up for two hours Friday night.Then Linda Jackson walked in the front door.She pointed out, as we know, that the Illinois Youth Center-Kewanee, where she works, has had some problems which haven't helped its image and lowered the morale of the employees. She's going to line up as many volunteers from the staff as she can. They're all going to have specially-made T-shirts which IYC employees will buy, proceeds going to a good cause, and wear them in the sandwich line to show support for the community.Tuesday morning, the volunteer business picked up as other newsroom duties took a backseat. I had something else in mind for this column, but switched plans when the volunteer train started to roll.Hog Festival Committee secretary Robyn Resch called. She and her husband are in charge of the much smaller version of the pork chop operation which is set up each year in West Park to serve the crowd attending the flea market and craft show. This year they have a problem. A few of their "regulars" have health issues, while others are attending a family reunion that weekend. She said they need both cookers to grill chops and people to make, bag and serve butterfly pork chops and pork patty sandwiches. They need help from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. If you can help, even for an hour or two, call Robyn at (309) 883-1743. Don't call me.Part of Robyn's problem, however, may be solved. Minutes after I hung up the phone, Don Hagaman called and said the Galva Lions Club would like to help. When he heard about the need at the park, he said they would have to talk about it at the club's ice cream social Wednesday at Wiley Park, but might be able to take care of one of the days. They'll let her know.I wanted to check with Amron Buchanan on when the Kewanee High School Key Club members would like to help. Last year they made a big difference on Monday.Amron, whose wife Claudia is current president of the Kiwanis Club which sponsors Key Club, said between them, they could run four people in two-hour shifts all day Sunday so I drew a line all the way from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and marked it "Kiwanis and Key Club."As I said before, I am told there is no limit to the number of people needed at any given time, but there's probably a point at which people are standing around with nothing to do so I am trying to keep an eye on how many are assigned to any given hour or period. Already it looks like 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday has sufficient numbers on deck.Let's keep the roll going. Call me at 852-2181 during Star Courier business hours, e-mail me anytime at dclarke@starcourier.com, or tweet me at DaveClarke@SCnews_clarke.Still a good selection of hours and days available. Let's fill the food tent for Hog Days!

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